Whidbey author invites local community to first book party

Gert Garibaldi puts her jeans on one butt cheek at a time. And that’s the philosophy of life for the feisty high-schooler.

Therein lies the theme of Whidbey Island author Amber Kizer’s first book of her young adult series, “One Butt Cheek at a Time,” which features the opinionated teen Gert as its first-person main character.

Kizer invites the local community to a celebration of her October debut of the book from 7 to 9 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20 at the Bayview Cash Store Front Room. The party will include a short reading by the author at 8 p.m., a free raffle and giveaways, books for sale and cake and refreshments.

“One Butt Cheek at a Time” was published by Delacorte Press — a division of Random House — and Kizer will just be getting back from a busy three-week tour promoting the title through the Random House Teen Voices Tour. She was one of three authors chosen for the tour which took her to Pittsburgh, Pa., Miami, Fla., Austin, Texas, San Francisco, Calif. and Seattle.

Gert Garibaldi is a 15-year-old high school sophomore with a dire need to express her opinions. Her best friend is gay, her parents are older than usual and her world revolves around the fact that she is not gorgeous, not rich and not dating the hottest guy in school.

In this first book of the series, Gert learns to drive, has her first kiss, survives homecoming rituals and turns 16.

The character, Kizer said, is not autobiographical but does reflect some of the experiences that she had in high school.

“I hated three of the four years of high school. Hate might not even be a strong enough word,” Kizer said.

“Torture, insecurity, flailing; I did a lot of flailing about.”

But Kizer didn’t start out writing about the experiences of a young person. She had started writing adult romance novels some years ago when she was forced to leave college in her freshmen year due to a rare disease in her legs called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, or RSD.

The leg atrophy and chronic pain incapacitated Kizer and she was forced to find a career that would allow her to still work while dealing with the inability to move at times.

The 29-year-old author said the silver lining of the story is that the disease forced her to discover her talent out of necessity and that she has been writing every day since.

While working on the romances Kizer was pestered by a character who would not leave her head and the teen sarcasm became so distracting she decided to give Gert Garibaldi some pages to get her out of her system.

Gert has not stopped talking since and Kizer has already finished the second book of the series “From Butt to Booty” which focuses on the second semester of Gert’s sophomore year and will be released in the fall of 2008. She calls the series “Gert Garibaldi’s Rants and Raves.”

Kizer said that six publishers were vying for the series after she sent the book out. The main attraction seems to be the unapologetic honesty of the main character.

Stephanie Lane, the senior editor at Delacorte Press, called Gert “a brutally honest new chick lit heroine” and said she was immediately attracted to the character because “Gert’s funny, she’s smart, but most of all she’s real.”

Kizer said she went with Delacorte because they seemed to get the feel of the series better than any of the other publishers.

There is so much in the world of a teenage girl that is taboo, Kizer said. And that’s what appeals to her so much as an author. She has big plans for Gert in the course of the series which may even include experiences abroad for the young character.

“Anywhere that she can get into trouble,” Kizer said.

Kizer has been taking her talents beyond the page and into Langley Middle School where she teaches writing workshops. She will also be a guest speaker at the 2008 Whidbey Island Writers Conference where she will talk about writing series and sequels.

Having grown up on Whidbey Island, Kizer is anxious to show her appreciation to the community for their support.

“I would like people to come because this community has been so supportive of me and I’d like them to help me celebrate,” Kizer said.

Be sure and get there early if you want to sample “Gert’s First Date Flutters;” cookies inspired by the flavors of Gert’s first official date which included coke, junior mints and coffee. The recipe is included in “One Butt Cheek at a Time.”

For a variety of info about Kizer and her young adult series, visit www.amberkizer.com or www.onebuttcheek.com. Amber Kizer can be reached at 321-4404 or amber@amberkizer.com.